Trump Unveils Afghanistan Plan: Business as Usual

First formal address to nation as Commander-in-Chief

President Trump’s disappointing “business as usual” speech on Monday night with regard to his plans for Afghanistan left many of his supporters feeling like “she” won in November. The thing is, President Trump committed the United States military to an open ended war in Afghanistan, despite his campaign promises to limit American military intervention abroad and concentrate on “America First” issues, i.e. nation building at home.

In his speech, the POTUS vowed to further increase the number of American soldiers in the Afghanistan 16 year (and counting) war with no end in sight. The Afghan government cheered President Trump’s decision on Tuesday, while the Taliban warned America that it will suffer the same fate as the USSR in the graveyard of empires which is Afghanistan since immemorial times.

During the same speech, President Trump blasted Pakistan’s theocracy for harboring Islamic terrorists in safe havens on its territory. Just like Barry Obama did in the past, Donald Trump used the same vague promises, i.e. not to give Afghanistan a blank check while he vowed to get tough on Pakistan. It’s interesting to note that Trump himself admitted in the address that he basically flip flopped on his Afghanistan/Pakistan foreign policy, saying that even if his original desire was to pull America out of these quagmires, he had been persuaded otherwise (by whom?). Even Fox News accused the President of betraying his supporters, changing his rhetoric from America First to Afghanistan First.

As far as we can tell, it doesn’t really matters who’s in the White House. The military-industrial complex always wins. The only difference between Obama and Trump is that the latter pronounces Pakistan properly.

This is a fine speech — but President Trump campaigned on getting us OUT of Afghanistan.